We use direct actions to interrupt the status quo and bring awareness to key issues and different forms of state violence affecting the root causes of the plight of black and brown people around the world.,

We stand against the many forms of state violence: police killings, mass incarceration, poverty and others. We stand for justice for Tony Robinson and ALL Black lives lost at the hands of the state. We stand for community and self determination. We will not stop until we are free.

Incarceration and other Racial Disparities in Dane County and Wisconsin

Racial Disparities in Dane County:

25% Black unemployment rate, compared to 4.8% for whites

74% of Black youth live in poverty, compared to 5.5% of white youth

Black students are 15 times more likely to be suspended from school than whites

Black youth face a 15 times greater risk of being put in foster care than whites

Black youth are 15 times more likely to spend time in county detention than whites

Black teens are 6 times more likely to be arrested than white teens

Black adults are arrested at a rate of 8 to 1 compared to white adults

11 to 1 by Madison Police Department in 2013 according to updated statistics

Black men make up 4.8% of Dane County and 43% of the Dane County Jail

Source: Race to Equity: A Baseline Report on the State of Racial Disparities in Dane County. Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, Madison, WI. 2013.

Racial Disparities in Imprisonment in Wisconsin:

More than 50% of Black men in their early 30s in Wisconsin have been in state prison

Nearly 13% of Wisconsin’s working-age Black men are in jail or prison, the highest incarceration rate in the United States

Nearly 8% of Wisconsin’s working-age Native American men are locked up

Wisconsin’s prison population is more than 40% Black; Blacks comprise 5% of Wisconsin’s voting-age population

ex-felons under correctional supervision, and those currently in prison or jail cannot vote in Wisconsin

Only about 10% of Black men with incarceration records hold a valid Wisconsin driver’s license

Sources: Pawasarat, John and Lois M. Quinn. Statewide Imprisonment of Black Men in Wisconsin. Employment and Training Institute, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2014.

Pawasarat, John and Lois M. Quinn. Wisconsin’s Mass Incarceration of African American Males: Workforce Challenges for 2013. Employment and Training Institute, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2013.

Police Homicides, Excessive Force and Non-Indictments

Justified Homicide:

The methodology the FBI uses to collect information on police “justified” homicides is lacking. Only 750 of 16,000 police precincts report.

In 2013, the FBI tallied 461 “justifiable homicides” committed by law enforcement. This is the highest number in two decades, even as the nation’s overall homicide rate continues to drop. The FBI records a homicide as "justifiable" when there is not a conviction of the law enforcement official. (http://www.gannett-cdn.com/experiments/usatoday/exp/police-shootings.svg)

Plumhoff v. Rickard, 2014. In a 9-0 Supreme Court decision the justices decided that it was not "excessive force" when police shot 15 rounds in car after a high speed car chase, killing the car's driver and passenger. The court wrote, “that if police officers are justified in firing at a suspect in order to end a severe threat to public safety, the officers need not stop shooting until the threat has ended.” (http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/plumhoff-v-rickard/)

Non-indictments:

Graham v. Connor, 1989. In this case, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that “the reasonableness of a particular use of force must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, and its calculus must embody an allowance for the fact that police officers are often forced to make split-second decisions about the amount of force necessary in a particular situation.” It is because of this case that officers are rarely indicted when the kill civilians. They can claim they reasonably feared for their life and acted accordingly. (http://hanfordsentinel.com/news/local/crime/use-of-force-what-does-the-law-say/article_04a4ad69-7dd5-5099-a1e8-e764ab26c9b2.html)

YGB Coalition

Email Address

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YGB needs your voice in order to get an investigation by the United Nations as we elevate the conversation of of racial disparities in Madison and fight for justice for Tony Robinson, the unarmed black teen murdered at the hands of officer Matt Kenny of the Madison Police Department

ABOUT US

The Young Gifted and Black Coalition is a circle of young leaders determined to end state violence and raise the voice of communities of color. We are young Black Women, Queer Folks, Straight Folks and Feminist Men who are fighting for Black Liberation. Our focus is on the low income black communities that our core members call home.